Plan 6
by bhut
Summary: And so, according to plan, Grant ended in Hell, 'cause to be honest, any other place would be highly unlikely. But that's ok, he wanted to get there in the first place - because of Kara. Now that they're together, they're busting out of this place - for two ex-agents it's easy, you know?
1. Chapter 1

**Plan 6**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners._

And so it came to pass that Grant Ward had finally fallen in battle and ended up in Hell, in its' vestibule, 'cause honestly? The way that his life has come and gone? Anything else was highly unlikely, alas. Between the crowds of miserable people, the musty, stinking atmosphere, the misshapen and armed natives, the bizarre landscape and etc, Grant felt very much as he did on most of his missions, including the obvious lack of backup, though he did feel refreshed ever since he had stopped living...period.

"The old maps were true, that planet _was_ the right place to go to," Grant nodded to himself and began to look around. Several well-armed natives ( **cough,** let's just call them demons and be done with it), were already showing an interest in him, and were approaching him slowly, just to ensure that he fell in with the rest of the queue that marched to their eternal damnation. Grant didn't doubt that he _did_ belong there, but right now? He had much more important people to think about than just himself.

"Excuse me," he spoke politely to one of the demons in question. "I'm looking for a woman. Her name is Kara Lynn Palamas, and she may, or may not, have a scar on her face. She might be around here. Did you see her?"

The demon blinked and stopped, clearly thinking this over. Apparently, he was not unlike Kaminsky or the other low-level Hydra agents – not big on thinking, that is. Grant's statement clearly caught him flat-footed, and-

"Grant!" Kara Lynn yelled as she ran at him (into him, really) from the gloom. She tackled him and grabbed onto him – hard. "You came for me!"

"Of course I did," Grant nodded, as the two of them carefully sat down onto the rocky floor of the underworld. "I promised you and I'm going to keep _this_ promise, no matter what."

"Oh Grant, you _always_ kept your promises, at least to me," Kara Lynn giggled. "You didn't always choose the best or the smartest way to carry them out, but did it you have." She paused and added. "And I will always pay you back – I will always carry out on my promises to you, I swear. Now let us get out of here – the populace here is either boring or annoying, the atmosphere stinks, and the service is obnoxious. Shall we?" She got onto her feet, followed by Grant.

"Yes," the big agent nodded, "but for honesty's sake I'm thinking that the opposite side has already made you a counteroffer?" he pointed to some figures (located at a respectful distance) that looked more angelic than demonic, and were given a wide berth by the others.

"You mean let you go in exchange for cleansing and Paradise?" Kara Lynn grimaced, as the two of them began to move 'against the current', to the exit (or the entrance, depending the P.O.V.) "If I hadn't met you, if I had been just a puppet of Hydra, or S.H.I.E.L.D., or whoever, I just might've taken it. But I met you – you were the one who saw me as a person, the one who tried to rescue me, who rescued me, who gave me hope and made me whole."

"I failed with Bobbi Morse-"

"Morse is going to get hers, I just know it," Kara grimaced. "Now let's get out of here – together."

"Glad to," Grant nodded amiably back in reply, when one of the demons finally stood in their path.

"Go back," the otherworldly equivalent of a foot soldier spoke in a hollow voice, even as he prodded Kara with a pitchfork. Startled, Kara Lynn yelped – apparently, these things did hurt.

Grant looked at the otherworldly entity with a very displeased look – and then he hit it.

/

One obligatory fight scene later...

Well, actually it was not much of a fight scene – more of Grant's latest opponent going down with one punch. Yes, it was an otherworldly demonic entity, but Grant was having a bad life lately, Kara really was the only good thing going for him, and seeing her get hurt...well, he had knocked-out, or even killed, people with a single blow, especially when he had been working for Hydra. And S.H.I.E.L.D. Been there, done that, rescued people too. Right now, he was rescuing Kara – the two of them were moving towards the entrance/exit from the underworld, and even though there was no pursuit going behind them, the going was still slow, and both Grant and Kara opted to keep quiet, to save their breath for breathing, not talking, for they were busy enough as it was.

And things, to be honest, were not very good. The road appeared to grow steeper and worse by the moment, the exit/entrance seemed to grow blurry and indistinct, and if Grant would have been on his own, he might have stopped and even went back – for John, but there was Kara. Yes, sometimes she literally rode on his back, but only that they both could utilize his superior height: when it was necessary, Kara got off him, climbed onto a ledge and pulled him upwards, helping him, helping them both to move on. Considering that she did not have any problems in guiding him upwards and forwards, Grant could not help but feel that maybe the problem was he – not their path. Maybe he should let Kara Lynn go – maybe she could get there on her own.

No. They were a team. Maybe a wrong one, an incorrect one, but still a team. They _were_ making progress after all, so maybe they will make it? Together? Or perhaps they will fail together, and that suck, but they will still be together. After months of S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, after months of post-Kara loneliness (well, partial loneliness, but still), he is not about to let her go, uh-uh. Maybe it is selfish, but he already has died for her, so that he would bring her back, (rather than John), and that is what exactly he was going to do – they were going to do. Together.

"There is still time to change your mind," Grant hears someone speak. He blinks: at last, they are at the exit, but there is a figure, an angelic figure, blocking the path. Grant can take the new arrival on, he shall, he is just tired, and he needs a moment to recover his strength. The ball is in Kara's court now, once more. He hopes-

"No," Kara says firmly, sounding rightfully angry, sounding as if she is standing on her own two feet. "You were wrong. I was right. Grant came back for me. We made it out. Together. Now here you are, looking like some sort of a Bobbi rip-off and are trying to offer me a deal? Get away from us and let us pass or we will pass through you. Got it?"

"You don't know what you're getting. You know what you are giving up-"

"Maybe we'll be able to win it back once more," Kara shrugged. "Anyways, are you going to let us pass?"

"It's your choice," the angelic figure moved aside, revealing the exit/entrance into 'the real life' from the underworld. "Are you ready?"

Grant and Kara exchanged looks. Oddly, Grant no longer felt tired though neither did he feel hostile towards the angelic figure. "As we'll ever be. Kara?" he turned to his partner.

"Agreed," the female ex-agent nodded, and together they walked into the sunlight.


	2. Welcome Back

**Welcome Back**

 _Disclaimer: see previous chapter._

...The light vanished leaving Grant...all by himself. "Now this is cheating, and the really cheap kind, too," the ex-agent told the supposed higher powers. "If you have plans for us – tell us directly, enough with the loops!" There was no reply, so Grant got onto his feet and examined himself. He was...he actually did not know where he was, but it was a place full of dust and deterioration, a place that had been abandoned for weeks or months, and a place that heavily smelled of death – a very familiar smell to him. There was a firefight in this place several months ago, with quite a few casualties, too.

Thoughtfully, Grant went out in the nearest direction of the smell, in order to see if there was anything worthwhile to pick-up...and stopped. He didn't really need anything from here, and furthermore? He had a very solid feeling that Kara was not here either, so why dawdle? He _had_ an idea where to start to look for her in the first place, and getting there was going to be tricky, and-

And he was done with unnecessary killing too – maybe even with necessary one. He was trained as a spy, not just an assassin, he could get from point A to point B without attracting too much attention without killing anyone (well, intentionally – unintentionally was another thing), especially from S.H.I.E.L.D. and ACTU (if it was still around). Not that he was afraid of them-

Yes, he was. Not for himself, (he would tear them apart if need must be), but because of Kara and...few other people, who became attached to him when he re-infiltrated Hydra, **cough,** after Kara's demise for some reason. And all he had done, or maybe – not done, was take minimal care of them, not sell and buy them the way Malick and the other heads of Hydra had done, and...help take care of Lash. Really, Coulson could have done this; Skye (or whatever she taken to calling herself after the new InHuman people came out of the closet) could have done this; so...was this special? Grant did not know. He was not sure he cared either, but he did need to leave. He turned around – and there was Skye, flanked by some man that he did not know about.

"Well, this is awkward," Grant muttered – honestly. "Um, how have you been?"

"You – you're dead," Skye muttered, staring at him...just staring, actually. "Coulson crushed your heart, the alien ate you inside-out, and you died!"

"Yes, but in my defence – I had to! Because of my stupidity, Kara was dead _and_ stuck in limbo so I _had_ to get her out of there _personally_. To do that I had to die – on that alien planet whose wormhole was controlled by Hydra. I regret that I had to trick Coulson – but you know what? Kara – she cares about me. Coulson – the two of us were done when he offered me T.A.H.I.T.I. as if he was some high-ranking drone in Obama's administration," Grant shrugged.

Skye just stared at him; there was something in her gaze that Grant decided to...kneel before continuing to talk. "Look. I promised I never hurt you. I intend to stick to this promise. I also intend to get back to Kara – she is back too, I believe. So, either you let me go or...you arrest me, but please, I still need to get to Kara first. Can you take me there first? I beg you-"

Skye seemed to implode: she roughly sat down, curled into a knot and began to cry. Grant could not make any heads or tails of it, especially since yells of "I'm not a monster! I am not my mother! I'm not a bitch!" did not help any either.

"You," the other man, Skye's companion, began to speak, but something snapped deep within Grant, and he found himself walking over to the gifted agent, and then he hugged her and began to whisper softly:

"Shh, shh, you're no monster, but a soldier, a good and wonderful soldier of S.H.I.E.L.D., an amazing and beautiful woman, a-"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone," Skye said garrulously, eyeing Grant with one eye. She did not protest against the hug, though. "Coulson is gone too."

"That sucks," Grant replied – with complete honesty. "I didn't like Phil at the end, but he was a good man. Did the alien get him?"

"Yes, but it was more than that," Skye exhaled. "Joey-"

"I'm on it," the other man nodded as he shot the two of them a weird look. His manner, however, was professional enough, as he sat down next to them. "It's hard to point out where it went wrong _exactly_ , Mr. Ward – right?"

"Just call me Grant. Mr. Ward was my father – our father," Grant interrupted. "Speaking of mine and ours, how's Tommy? Did he recover our family's honor?"

"He's dead, Grant," Skye looked away, looking almost embarrassed. "He was...a good man and a good agent. Uhm."

"You didn't like him," Grant made a suggestion.

"Well, not that, no. It is just...having him around was like having some sort of a pale copy of you, you know? Especially when the alien began to work with Malick's Hydra for real and things kind of began to break down completely-"

"Wait, what?"

"Look," Skye's 'Rookie' spoke up. "Here's the thing. No one back in the old place missed you, but, you know? It was _Coulson_. The Cavalry was upset that he killed you in an unprofessional manner. Campbell was upset how he killed you – it was too reminiscent of Lash for his tastes...for everyone's tastes, actually. He and Daisy had words. Hunter and Morse – they picked his side. Fitz and Simmons had their own drama. And Mack...he was, sort of, one of us. He picked up something back in Puerto Rico, so it just made things worse. The Hydra alien – it called him 'cousin' and all...things just imploded, you know?"

"No, I don't," Grant shook his head. "S.H.I.E.L.D. had faced obstacles before. It had faced superior opponents before. It-"

"Yes, well, now it was as if a switch got flipped and we became a 'real' agency – just an agency," Skye sighed. "I and Lincoln had words. We were nasty. We were mean. Lincoln got involved with me because I reminded him of my mother. I...I don't know why I fell in love with him-"

"Does it matter? If you love him – accept him completely," Grant shrugged. "I'm not perfect. Kara is not perfect either. We can work with that."

"You thought that I was perfect, once," Skye said quietly.

"And I still do," Grant admitted. "Coulson's probably right – I am obsessed about you. But I can deal with this. So can you."

Skye did not look too relieved at this admission. "Didn't you hear me? Phil is gone-"

"This isn't about Phil. It is about you. Back in the underworld, I was about to quit at some point and stay. But Kara would not have been able to make it on her own. So I had to keep on going. Skye, sometimes this self-sacrifice is not worth it. Sometimes you just have to keep on going." He paused and added. "Plus, you're pregnant-"

"I'm not! I had my period earlier this week! I'm just fat!" Skye snapped and groaned. "Oh Lord, I can't believe I said this."

"It's true, she just had it two days ago," her friend nodded. "I had to help with the pads-"

"Hey, she's your S.O. – you'll go through fire and water and copper trumpets of fame for her," Grant shrugged. "She'll do the same for you – you know it too. Now if you excuse me, if you're not arresting me, I'm off to meet with Kara – please."

Skye looked at him with a look that was almost on par with his and Melinda May's blank looks. "We'll give you a lift," she apparently had decided, "in part because...because I'm not sure where to go now – next. Phil is gone, Victoria Hand is back, you're not surprised-"

"No, not really. I did tell her, when I dumped her off the plane in a pod that she was to stay in Australia until I die, because if we meet again, she would have more than a grazing wound on her head," Grant shrugged. "Well, I died, didn't I? So what is she up to now?"

"She's running Hammer – it's our replacement," Skye grumbled. "Hunter and Morse have talked Campbell into joining in. Someone is rebuilding Li Shi too, we heard. I guess my invitation just got lost in the mail-"

"You know, I promised that I will always tell you the truth, so I won't lie, I cannot promise you anything but an in with that crowd, and only if they're who I think they are," Grant got onto his feet. "I won't exactly call them my friends, either."

"Are they Hydra?"

"I hope not – but they might be ex-Hydra, like I am," Grant confessed. "But I still think that I can get you two an in – and the rest is up to you and your own merit."

"Right," Skye blinked, sounding more like her earlier, Rookie self for the first time since ever. "Let's get Kara first, shall we?"

 _TBC_


	3. Reckoning

**Reckoning**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™._

When the light faded, Kara discovered herself in a coffin. She was dressed, she was alive, but she was in a coffin. "You, higher powers – screw you!" she yelled upwards. "I'm a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., I survived Hydra, I survived your company in the underworld – I can handle this and I will. And if I won't – you better hope I kill you quickly, for when Grant returns for round 2 or 3, it'll be worse!"

With those parting words of defiance Kara steeled herself and began to punch her way through the coffin's lid – if she was stuck, she might as well begin to get unstuck by herself.

Plus, it was just a coffin – after brainwashing, it was not all that challenging, actually.

/

And so it happened that Skye (or Daisy) found herself flying her (relatively speaking) jet, carrying not only her protégé (and was she messing up his life too?), but also Grant Ward. Her other ex (or, remembering Miles, her other-other ex?). Skye did not know, nor did she really care. Only she did.

Skye remembered Grant vividly, and in some very different details – as a S.O., a friend, a potential boyfriend, a traitor, an ally, an enemy, and a deteriorating host for an alien creature. And now he was back, only he seemed to be none of those things, just a man, a fellow ex-agent, who was listening to Joey attentively and curiously, and... and what?

"It's hard to say what happened next, man," Joey was speaking, meanwhile. "For the first couple of weeks everyone was happy the director and Fitz were back – except for the men themselves. Sort of. And May, but I never got the knack of reading her, you know?"

"Yes I do," Grant nodded. "But the FitzSimmons still didn't get together? What was wrong with them?"

"Morse and Hunter had an idea or two, but I never got close to them," Joey confessed. "Anyways, yeah, there were the FitzSimmons, doing their drama, and then Fitz confessed that he saw Coulson killing you and how, and things got weird after that. No, 'weird' is not the right thing to say – they got worse. Campbell got upset and compared the director to Lash – he never really got onto the entire hating you part, anyways. Daisy got upset, began to defend the director to Campbell, May stepped in and got involved. Only it soon got not about you, not really, but about her and Coulson, you know?"

"Yes. She and Coulson...their relationship was never easy," came the quiet reply. "If Hydra hadn't arisen, her friendship with Coulson could've fallen apart a lot sooner, I'm afraid."

"Well, it fell apart then," Joey said with certainty. "The way they were yelling at each other, telling to each other why they never fell in love with each other, how they, um, criticized each other about everything – it was bad. It was love, turned to hate, or something. Sorry," he blushed, "I sometimes get poetic and all."

"And then what?"

"This is when we stopped being friends – no," Joey exhaled. "Lance talked with Bobbi about I know not what and they befriended Lincoln. They had their own hatchet to grind with the director. I think they expected Daisy to apologize to Lincoln or something, at least at first. But she never did."

There was a pause and Skye belatedly realized that yes, she was still Daisy, and that the others expected her to pitch in, so she did.

"Yeah, I think they did," she agreed. "Maybe then he and I would've had our relationship and happy ending. But, on one hand, as I told DC after Rosalind had died, I do understand what you went through with Garrett and all, because it is not unlike when I went through – with Cal and Jia at first, and then with DC." She paused and looked askance at her ex. "I told DC once that I won't forgive you and, and, I've been thinking lately. Maybe we can forgive each other instead? Ever since DC died, everything seems to have died with him, too."

For several moment the two just looked at each other, silently, not so much challenging, as weighting each other. "Of course," Grant nodded finally. "Let's shake on it - a new start for both of us."

"Out with the old, in with the new," Skye agreed. She paused and added, somewhat belatedly. "Not that I have much in the options of 'new' – same goes for Joey. We got the idea that someone is putting Li Shi back together-"

"Raina," Grant says firmly. "Apparently, she recovered from your mother's assassination attempt with the help of some initial dissidents. They were putting Li Shi together again, when in popped Lash – or Dr. Garner, I suppose. Raina was never fond of me, but she felt that I was the best person for the job to handle him, so we made an agreement – they use their astrolabe to help me get Kara back, and I handle Lash. I already had half a plan how to pay back Coulson but have a place to retire to – with Kara – was a nice bonus. Only then I discovered that Lash used to be married to May, and I did not want to kill her, so I decided to deal with the good doctor by exposing him to her instead. Did it work?"

"Yeah, but then Simmons let him go, while you were on the alien planet with DC and Fitz," Skye winces. "This...didn't endear us to Lincoln either, not when it got out. Lash killed many of his friends, he expected us to finish him off."

"Why hadn't you?" Grant asks, genuinely curious.

"It's rather like your case," Skye admits. "We tried to pawn you off to your brother – your elder brother – first. We pawned Andrew off to the ATCU instead. Neither case worked out that entire well, you know."

"I do," Grant nods. "What's with the sad clown face?"

Skye blinked. "...I do not look like a sad clown!" she yelled.

"Right now you did. Look, the people in Li Shi – they probably will not like me very much, not after I failed to deliver, but this doesn't involve you or your junior partner," Grant grows serious very quickly. "I'm sure you'll be able to negotiate something with them once I give you an in-"

Skye blinks. Yes, they are on a new leaf in their relationship, but she hopes that Grant would stick around, his relationship with Kara notwithstanding. She knows that she will not be friends with Lincoln or Lance and Bobbi any time soon; she is not sure where she stands with her other ex-S.O. or the FitzSimmons; so it would be nice to have Ward around, his relationship with Kara notwithstanding. She tells him as much.

"Maybe we can work it out, boss," Joey replies instead. "None of us really want to be a part of Li Shi – we're all loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., to its spirit, to its idea, not to Phil Coulson. They seem to be largely a civilian crew and we are not, not really. Maybe we can work out some sort of a partnership?"

"It's possible, but at least at first they'll be the senior partners," Grant says quietly. "And I'm not discussing anything without discussing it first with Kara, Joey. But thanks for the offer all the same."

"Hey, it's cool," Joey is not offended at all, actually. "She's _your_ partner, after all – naturally you want to run things by her. Are we there yet?"

"Actually, we are," Grant nods, after looking out of the plane's window. "Please land – gently."

 _TBC_


	4. Getting to go

**Getting to go**

 _Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

At first Skye was incredulous that Grant was meeting Kara in a cemetery – morbid much? – but then she remembered the actual details behind the separation of the two of them, and things began to make sense once more, especially by the agency's old standards, so yeah.

"Kara?" Grant called out, as he walked towards one of the graves. "Are you here? Are you ok?"

"I am," Kara came from behind a tombstone – a large one. She was dirty, her hands were bloody, but she was clearly in _good_ spirits for a change. "How are you? Who are those people?"

"I think that you've already met Skye – or Daisy," Grant replied brightly, even as the two of them hugged – warmly, although without any kisses, (Skye noticed idly, **cough** ), "and this is Joey. He's with her."

"Hah," Kara Lynn gave the other two a thoughtful look – it is much more coherent than what she used to give back when she had visited S.H.I.E.L.D.'s HQ, before she died. "Are they with Coulson?"

"Kara, it's been more than a year since you died, and about 3 months since I did," Grant replied, "and we have missed a lot." He took a deep breath and proceeded to retell Kara what he had learned from Skye and Joey.

When he finished, Kara was even more thoughtful. "So, S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone?" she spoke quietly.

"Skye and Joey over there are thinking about _maybe_ restarting it – _maybe_ ," Grant admitted. "Want to help?"

"Do you?"

"Yes. And you?"

"It's trickier, but yes. I may be over Morse, over her husband, but I am not a friend to either of them or to her S.O., so you can count me in. Grant too," Kara gave both Skye and Joey a piercing look. "Are any of your friends will be joining us, too?"

"We'll talk to them," Skye admitted. "But why do you want to join us? Just to frustrate Bobbi, Lance and the rest of HAMMER? I do not think I can agree to this sort of thing wholeheartedly. Maybe we can make you an asset instead?"

"Ok, I deserve this," Kara nodded, her eyes and expression now completely serious, "so let's talk in detail. I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. – Fury's version – because of Bobbi. I was completely head over heels with her, true, I wanted to be worthy of her, I became agent 33 – one of the 'golden hundred' of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents; not the top ten, but still worthy of respect. I believe in those ideas – they failed me. Bobbi, she handed me over to Hydra and did not even care what happened to me; she certainly did not try to rescue me. Grant did. Rescue me. That is why I knew that he _was not_ Hydra – he did not believe in the whole manacles and collars ideology, you know?"

"Yet he still-"

"He isn't perfect, he'll have ambiguous morals for the rest of his life, but he still came for me – that's what counts," Kara's gaze did not waver. "Bobbi was a perfect agent. As a human being – she is rotten. She is just very good into seducing people into doing what she wants – but I am getting carried away. I am trying to tell you that both Grant and I are flawed, but we honestly do want to help you. And Joey. Because the world without S.H.I.E.L.D. is a world worse for wear."

"Grant tried to kill Phil-"

"Skye, you know that if I wanted to, I would've gone for him directly immediately," Grant shook his head. "I just wanted him to suffer as I have. You know yourself that I am not a good man-"

"You went to Hell, I assume, to rescue Kara. I don't know what sort of man you are, anymore," Daisy replied quietly. "I don't know Kara to begin with."

"This goes both ways," Kara pointed out, equally subdued. "Maybe we can learn about each other on a flight away from here? I don't really want to meet any of the HAMMER crowd."

"Good idea," Joey agreed. "Boss lady, shall we rocket?"

"Don't call me that," Skye reiterated, almost purely on instinct. "But yes, let's." She had a lot to think about, anyways.

/

It took quite a bit of time to get from 'Kara's cemetery' back to Li Shi. Oddly, it was not a wholly uncomfortable ride, as Kara began to talk to Joey some time after the lift-off, quite animatedly, too. Sadly, it was in Spanish, so Skye felt somewhat left out.

"Does it bother you, that you're left out?" she asked Grant.

"I _speak_ Spanish, actually," Grant replied, sotto voce. "Why, I and Kara spoke Spanish to each other all the time, before Coulson and – Deathlok picked us up. We were going to be just an ordinary couple – no spying, no agency, no nothing. Things would have been very different for all of us, if I just told Coulson no. At that point in time he _had_ been bluffing; if we stood our ground this would have been the end of it, just the end. No one in S.H.I.E.L.D. is or was irreplaceable, Skye – you would've been able to defeat List and rescue Campbell without any help from me."

"True," Skye shook her head. "Only it didn't matter. I broke up with Lincoln because of _Coulson_ , not _you_."

"Then why won't you get back together?"

Skye was silent. She did not want to tell Grant, she was not going to tell Grant, but the truth was... "I could, I _can_ live without him," she spoke softly, to no one in particular. "When you died, when Coulson and Fitz were saved, we were all so happy...only Fitz wasn't, and Simmons wasn't...because of Will, and Coulson wasn't either – not really. And then the truth came out, and Phil and Mel were fighting, and then we all just split. We were all loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. – we just were not friends with each other anymore. Ok, Phil and me were still friends – sort of, and May stayed with us 'cause the FitzSimmons stayed with us, but Hunter was taking Campbell's side, and so was Morse. Joey...he was with us too, you know?"

"Yeah," Joey nodded, "and the thing is, everyone expected Boss Lady here to begin to mend bridges with the guy and all – she just didn't. They were tight before, and then the tightness was gone, and she did not care. It was somewhat similar to what the director and the Cavalry were having, but not quite. So one day when we were training, he approaches her, and there was a big speech about loyalties and Li Shi and S.H.I.E.L.D. and terms and then it was _worse_."

"Lincoln wanted me to sell out the agency in favor of 'us', or not so much sell-out as I don't know, be more like my mother was," Daisy shook her head. "It was a mess. We ended up yelling at each other once more. Things grew worse after this. I realized that I did not love him, not really, not how the Fitz and Simmons were, or you and Kara-"

"Oh no, our relationship isn't exactly conventional – or consummated," Kara piped up. "Anyways, can we take a pause on the information angst? We need to land, anyhow."

Skye glared, but began to land.


	5. Li Shi Revisited

**Li Shi, revisited**

 _Disclaimer: you know, by now..._

Skye's (and Joey's) latest arrival into Li Shi went not unlike how S.H.I.E.L.D. would have handled it (on a normal day – for them). Grant had emitted some sort of a Morse code to the InHuman settlement (and even from a plane one could see that it was being both rebuilt and upgraded, on a physical, material level at least) and they got permission to land.

They landed, got out, began to look around – and were met by Werner von Strucker of all people. Skye was not sure what to make of von Strucker. Bobbi, at first, before the overall euphoria began to dissipate, had a rather 'bright' idea of seeing if von Strucker couldn't be recruited or redeemed by S.H.I.E.L.D. now that Ward was gone.

It did not work. When he came out of his coma, (and it didn't take too long, actually), Werner wasn't some scared boy that Bobbi claimed he was when they'd rescued him from Kebo – rather he was reminiscent of Whitehall, and Bakshi, and List – a dead-eyed, soulless Hydra operative/head, who wasn't amused, impressed or scared by the agency. This especially went true for Grant's brother, who was almost crippled by von Strucker after he tried to bond with Werner.

In the end, though, von Strucker agreed for 'protection' from Malick and the rest of Malick's cell. It was far less than Bobbi had immediately presumed, and von Strucker's steady belief that Grant _will_ be back from the dead was disturbing and misguided...

Only it was not. Doubly so, if you count the alien. Come to think of it, von Strucker clearly _had not_ been part of Malick's final assault onto S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, so maybe his deal with Coulson was bigger than just a protection detail? Judging by how he looked at Grant (not unlike how Fitz looked at Grant, between their mission to Ossetia and the Hydra uprising), Skye was quite confident to presume that whatever else was going on; S.H.I.E.L.D. was not a part of it. The fact that von Strucker was sort of interrogating the bigger man, in German, was a part of this conclusion.

...Naturally, Grant knew German; Kara Lynn, apparently, did not – so she walked over to the two men, and joined the conversation – in Spanish. Grant raised an eyebrow and answered von Strucker's latest question, von Strucker blinked, and spoke to Kara, in Spanish, but not as fluently as he had spoken in German. Kara raised one of her eyebrows, bemused, and pointed out to a redheaded woman, few years younger than her, who watched this new interaction _not so_ amused. Von Strucker blushed, flushed, and began to explain to the redhead, in English, that this was not anything real, you know, so um – Grant had to call him back to finish the interrogation/discussion/interview/etc. It was wrapped-up quickly enough, too.

"So, now what?" Joey piped up with genuine curiosity.

"Kara and I have to go and take baths since we returned from the land of the dead," Grant shrugged. "You and your S.O. want to take them too?"

As a matter of fact they did.

/

"What was this all about?" Skye asked Kara as the two of them bathed.

"Hm?" Kara blinked. "Ward and the kid set up a basic recognition system, just in case Ward isn't Ward, but an alien, or a more mundane shapeshifter like I was. We all saw the backup in case the recognition went bad, didn't we?"

"True," Skye confessed. "I just, I don't know. I expected something different, not almost textbook agency reception-"

"Have you thought that this sort of reception is textbook because it works?" Kara asked dryly. "Anyways, how are you feeling, being back-"

"No," Skye shook her head. "This isn't home, not really. It's just a place with potential allies..." she looked at Kara, clearly intent on saying more, when they were interrupted. "Boss lady, are you decent?" Joey called out through the door. "I and the big guy are!" He added something in Spanish; Kara rolled her eyes and muttered something under her nose, also in Spanish.

"Yes," Skye nodded. "We are."

She and Kara got up and began to dress themselves.

/

The meeting of, or with, the elders of Li Shi (the new Li Shi?) was something new for Skye too. Jiaying had kept the inner workings of her haven/half-way house safely away from Skye, and now, Skye suspected, this was coming home to roost – and she was the chicken.

"So," she spoke from her part of the conference table, flanked by Joey and Kara and also Grant (the only one out of her party who felt as nervous as she did – she could tell by her vibrations). "You're the elders of Li Shi."

"Yes, the ones who survived your mother's reign," spoke one of them.

"Obviously, I was making a statement, not a question," Skye did not blink: she could do this. "So, uh, the four of us – we've come with an offer."

"Which is?"

"We're rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. – yes, again – and we were hoping that you'll help. In exchange we'll help you."

"Why should we trust you? The last time-"

"The last time it was my mother, let's admit it and continue moving," Skye said firmly. "You people _are_ peaceful, even von Strucker's modifications are defensive rather than offensive, and that is good, but sometimes even peaceful people need help, as it was with Lash. You turned to Grant and he...had delivered. It's us who had messed it up by letting him go, again, so now we want to help." She paused and added, with a slightly self-discriminating grin, "actually, we have to help you, because S.H.I.E.L.D. will be repaying its' debts from now on."

Several of the elders (who actually looked closer to Coulson's age than to Skye's own) exchanged looks. "We... why should we trust you? Mr. Ward over there – he might've been _Hydra_ , not _S.H.I.E.L.D._ , but he did deliver, even while multitasking too, so why should we choose _you_ _people_ over _him_? He isn't one of us, but neither is Von Strucker-"

"Because _I_ am with _them_ , both I and Kara are, actually" Grant spoke up. "Look, we get it, you've been under Jia's control for so long that you aren't sure how to proceed next, and the whole predeterminism thing that you have going on? It does not help either. Me getting involved in this on my own, even with Kara? It would make things worse, because you actually got the groundwork for this whole democracy thing down pat, even the idea that a single leader – is a bad idea, you got it. I do not know about Werner, but I do know about Raina: she may not be the best person in the world, but she _does_ care about you people, first and foremost. I cannot. Maybe in time I will, but for now, the people I care first and foremost? They are in S.H.I.E.L.D., not here, which is why, regretfully, I am on Skye's side, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s."

"You were Hydra-"

"I stopped. So did Werner," Grant pointed at the young man.

"Yes," Werner nodded, his former good humour all gone, and looking grim serious here. "No one wants to be Hydra, not if they have a choice...or are sane, period."

"What'd happen to you? I'd been brainwashed," Kara spoke, sympathetically, for the first time.

"Meh, my family was in Hydra for ages, maybe even _before_ WWII," Werner shrugged casually, though he was not fooling anyone. "So was Malick's. For a while I thought of him as a family friend and sort of an uncle. I was wrong. Hydra is, or was, it is something. Everything and everyone is bought and sold there. I do not want to be bought or sold there or anywhere."

"And S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is here," Werner pointed out. "Willing to deal with you on an equal footing unlike HAMMER, BTW. Yeah, they are the smaller fish by far, but let us be fair – we are not doing so well either. They have to deal with us on equal ground – HAMMER does not. Think about that, honorable elders."

"We will," the 'honorable elders' replied.

And they did.

 _TBC_


	6. Down to Earth

**Down to Earth**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™._

"I got to hand it to this von Strucker kid and his crew – they got the digs down nice," Kara told Skye some time later, as they settled in with their meagre belongings (between the 4 of them they maybe had enough personal effects for 2 'regular' people, and maybe even less than that) into their new home/base/HQ (maybe?). "Nothing like dying and then coming back to life to teach you to appreciate creature comforts. You, Boss lady?"

Skye shrugged. She had lived in a van and besides, what she valued were not comforts but stability – and she told the other woman as much. "We need to talk," she concluded, slightly awkwardly, (reminiscent of her initial training with Joey, actually).

"We most certainly do," Kara nodded, completely serious now. "Boss lady, what kind of a boss are you? Like the Cavalry, for example, or-"

"Or nothing," Skye said bitterly. "I'm Mary-Sue, Skye, Daisy – I'm a lot of people and I think we'll be trying to do things more Li Shi's sort of way, you know?"

"I know, I get you, but you're still the chiefest leader," Kara shrugged. "I'll be keeping an eye on you or something, you know? I do not know you, you see, only from Grant – and he thinks that you have hung the moon. You shot him, 4 bullets, I pulled them out – and you get the picture."

Skye did not meet the other woman's eyes. Common sense told her that she should help pawn off Grant to Kara ASAP and be done with it. He was – only it was complex.

 _Understanding is not about_ forgiveness, _DC,_ she told Coulson shortly before the man sacrificed himself to save them from the alien monster. _It is about_ acceptance – and Coulson looked at her in a somewhat strange style, as if he had expected her to say something else, and nothing more was said on this topic. Before Grant died (and came back, **cough** ,) Skye was ready to tell him to go hang himself; now she was not sure.

 _Is it about the fact that he had died or_ how _he died?_ Hunter once asked her; back when her reconciliation with Lincoln still seemed certain. _Is it about him or Coulson? 'Cause for me – it's about Coulson: he gave me all this shit about putting Andrew in danger – and then he went pulled one better over me and Bob, in the wrong direction._

And Skye replied: _It is not just about him, or Coulson, or me. It is about our agency, the values it stands for, and what we have lost. I care about the agency; Lincoln doesn't; and Grant...it doesn't matter now, does it? So let us_ not _speak of this man anymore, shall we?_

Back then the 'negotiations' came to nothing; now-

"Kara, I'm scared, or worried," Skye began but was interrupted by Grant, of all people:

"Director, your ex is here!"

"Of course you are," Skye began, assuming that it was some sort of a poorly worded joke, when she caught Joey's expression, and realized something: "Oh. You mean Lincoln."

Grant did.

/

Lincoln had changed little since Skye saw him – when Coulson perished, stopping the alien and the vanguard of Malick's little Hydra army, they went their separate ways. Ok, _now_ they went their separate ways – if Skye and Joey had not run into Grant (and later Kara), Skye and Joey would have eventually gone to HAMMER and negotiated employment with Hand. Skye did not like Hand – she might not have been the Clairvoyant, but there always had been something about her that caused Skye to mistrust her, no matter how friendly she appeared to be, in the end. The fact that she had played along with Grant's faking of her death, and lived in Australia (scar or no scar) in semi-retirement, while the rest of them put their necks on the line, did not help matters either.

And yet...no. The fact was that as soon as she had _any_ options over HAMMER's, Skye took it – and she intended to stick with it too, even if Grant- no. Skye didn't know what happened to the man precisely while he was rescuing Kara from death, literally, but his vibrations did feel different now, but that is life, right? Maybe it will be better – that he seems to have become somewhat diminished.

"Daisy," Skye's other ex (other-other ex?) spoke, startling Skye from her thoughts. "So, you have decided to join Li Shi? Seriously, I am surprised. So's Raina," he pointed to the green-skinned woman, who was carefully not being involved in the conversation, just... hanging around, it seemed.

"Yeah, we hear you," Kara snaked from behind Skye, looking as friendly as Joey was hostile and Grant was...blank. Neutral, even. Then again, considering that she had shot him, once, and left him for dead, did she really expect him to defend her? Then again, did she need anyone to defend her? Or want, for that matter? "So, you're Campbell, the bloke that Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. had rescued from the Arctic. I'm Kara, back then I wasn't dead – not yet."

"She's Grant Ward's lady – he is the one used the astrolabe for," Raina explained reluctantly. "Kara, this is Lincoln. He is one of us, but not part of Li Shi. Between Jiaying and Lash he feels that he will be better out in the field, plus running assistance with us, with you, in HAMMER."

"Splendid," Kara said brightly. "The last this happened, between Coulson's people and Gonzales, Jia almost destroyed the world because the two factions were busy fighting each other: two alpha males caught in a struggle for dominance? It is not pretty. I have seen firsthand how Coulson and Ward went at it: Coulson forced Grant into doing things that _Coulson_ wanted, and Grant tricked Coulson into doing things _Grant_ wanted. No wonder that they both ended up dead. Coulson was able to deal with Gonzales, but Grant? Well, we all know now how it ended."

Kara took a deep breath and exhaled. "And as for _you_ , kiddies, here's the thing. You two are very alike – both put the other people before each other. With director Skye it's S.H.I.E.L.D., with Lincoln it's the other InHumans. If you want your relationship to succeed you got to accept that."

"But that's the thing – I'm not so sure of that anymore," Lincoln shook his head. "Daisy is an amazing woman – I just don't think that she's my woman, um. When we were together, it was wonderful, but then we broke-up, and I realized that I can live without her-"

"So what?" Kara did not sound very impressed. "For years I was in love with Bobbi Morse and she certainly did best to reciprocate – or rather, _pretend_ to reciprocate my feelings. Boy was I wrong – but I can live without her, you know? A relationship, kids, is not what it is cut out to be in Harlequin™ novels; there really cannot be any true love, not unless you're Morse who graduated S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, and possibly Hydra's seduction courses with full honors and thus can fake it all – for years, if not forever. The two of you can live without each other? Of course you can. But does it change your feelings for each other?"

"No," Skye admitted, "it doesn't. Neither of us is our first choice for each other, and while we can make it work on a personal level, we honestly don't want to."

"You don't?" Raina asked in a sharp tone of voice.

"Pretty much," Skye confessed. "Look, Raina, Lincoln, here's what I got from our meeting with the elders – including you and von Strucker, who aren't really elderly, but still keep it working. Li Shi got a big vault of things, similar to the astrolabe, which need to be protected. So, S.H.I.E.L.D. will do that, and it will work with HAMMER, if need arises. How do you like them apples – I mean arrangement?"

"You really S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to work? This is what – version three?" Lincoln said sceptically.

"No, but we're going to try anyways," Skye replied simply

 _TBC_


	7. Getting Assistance

**Getting Assistance**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners._

The house was darkening. The house was cooling down. The house was little more than an empty shell by now – its last (and latest) inhabitants were about to leave now, no matter how worried and bothered they were. No, not bothered – upset, and not about the departure per se, more about their goal, but still...

...Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons exchanged looks with each other, as they sat down across from Melinda May, their last teammate. Not last friend – they were still friends with Skye, Joey, Bobbi and the others, but somehow it was not the same, not anymore since S.H.I.E.L.D. went down and HAMMER rose instead. Really, it was not unlike how it had been with the 'real S.H.I.E.L.D.' – the FitzSimmons (and their friends) had truly mourned the deaths of Gonzales' and his people, but it honestly was not the same, and they all knew it.

And moreover, while Hand was not Garrett or Whitehall, neither was she Gonzales, let alone Fury. True, Coulson hadn't been Fury either, but at least, he hadn't been frightened of Ward and Hydra so much that he hid in Australia of all places, unlike Hand. And the scar on her face? May had her opinion about it, and as she told her younger friends, she honestly regretted being unable to ask Grant about it. Well, maybe they could contact his spirit via a medium, but between his own actions and the alien's, not even May wanted to get involved with him, not after what had happened to Coulson...

There was a knock on the door. Neither May nor the FitzSimmons expected any company, and while the people who _could_ , potentially, come knocking were not enemies, they were not exactly friends either, so—

"Who is it?" May asked through the locked door. It was petty, but still.

"It's us," Skye, of all people, replied.

"Hm?" May looked through the nearby window. The angle was not great, and her night vision was not better than an average human's was, actually, but she could see that it was more than just Skye and Joey outside. "You got company with you."

"Yes," Skye agreed.

"Are they friends of ours?"

"Sort of," Skye agreed. "Are we going to be playing 20 questions through the locked door? Cavalry, I guess our relationship has never been easy or simple, but 20 questions through a locked door? Really?"

"It's not that," Melinda muttered as she opened the door (the younger woman did have a point, BTW), "it's just-"

She opened the door and blinked. "You're dead," she told Grant.

"I was," Grant agreed simply. "And then I came back, with Kara. It cost me _something_ , I bet, but well, Kara was dead because of me, I _had_ to fix this."

"When Coulson died, Fury had to use an entire lab – the GH complex – to bring him back," May pointed the obvious.

"And because I did everything ass over backwards," Grant replied conversationally, "all I had was Raina's dubious instructions of how to use the astrolabe to bring Kara back." He looked uncomfortable here. "This is why, actually, I needed to go to the planet – I couldn't get to Kara here, on Earth."

"Of course not," Fitz said bitterly. "You would've overshot her and ended up with Garrett instead."

"Exactly!" Grant looked completely serious. "The initial plan wasn't unlike this one, with me and John busting out of Hell and taking our Hydra allies with us, but no, just no. My debt to John was great, but with his death it is paid. When I die, again, maybe I will meet him, and we will have words, and maybe even more, but now, in this lifetime? My debt to him is paid."

"Is this supposed to make us feel better?" Fitz was not impressed.

"No," Skye said sharply. "We're not here to make you feel better; we're here to ask you if you will help us bring S.H.I.E.L.D. back. Yes, it is going to be one of those 'once again' things, but I am thinking that none of us here wants to go and work for HAMMER, because otherwise, you would be already there-"

"True," May nodded. "Just for the record, Hand – is she Hydra?"

"No more so than John was, and maybe even less," Grant shrugged. "She's a political animal; she wouldn't have minded too much if I and Fitz, for example, wouldn't have made it back from the mission, and if Hydra got the best of Rogers and co. back then, she would've been hailing out there right next to Garrett."

"And you spared her," May said bitterly. "You really do everything ass over backwards, your priorities are ass over backwards, but those folk at HAMMER? They do not have them, at all. They just pretend..." she shook her head and turned back to Skye. "You can handle him? 'Cause if you won't, or can't, I will."

"Yes she can, though most of the handling, perhaps, will be done by me," Kara Lynn interjected smoothly into the older woman's speech. "Savvy?"

Melinda looked intently at Kara, who stared back, her hackles visibly raised, but not backing down. "We'll see," Melinda said finally. "Skye, you got some interesting people working with you. You will need help. I'm in."

"So are we," the FitzSimmons spoke as one, as they had once before, quite some time ago – so long that this synchrony caught them somewhat flat-footed and they stared askance first at each other, and then at the other people. They did love each other, but they also loved drama in their lives, and without it they currently felt slightly...off.

"Great!" Skye said brightly. "Li Shi has a very big vault of alien technological things, including the astrolabe that Grant used to bring Kara back. It is going to be the senior partner in our relationship, so we will not be able to play with them as much as you would like, but it will be nice to have you two in our corner when we get the chance to have our hands on some of them."

"Hm," Melinda looked askance at the FitzSimmons who looked back with their best 'forlorn little scientists who finally get a chance to do some science!' look. In tandem (for the first time in a long while, too). "So, how is this going to work?"

"Pretty much as the SSR did, according to your stories," Skye confessed, "with Li Shi playing the role of the U.S. It's not perfect, but it can work."

"Agreed," Melinda nodded. "Skye, you know some _interesting_ people. People, we are going to be living in some _interesting_ times. Let's get on with them, then!" she clapped her hands and got onto her feet. Then, as everyone did so, she leaned towards Skye and muttered quietly (by regular people's standards): "Lash, or Andrew – he is still a priority for me."

"Well duh," Skye agreed, and they shook on it.

End


End file.
